For one thing, this invention relates to a housing unit with an extensible room, comprising an awning with a rollable awning canvas attached to the outside of the housing unit above this room, so that when the room is extended, the awning canvas will automatically be unrolled over this room.
In the scope of this invention, the expression “housing unit” is used in the sense of any fixed or movable entity meant to shelter people. More particularly, this invention is focused on movable housing units such as, for instance, caravans, campers, motor homes and boats, irrespective of the fact whether these units have their own engine or have to be moved by means of other vehicles. The so-called leisure vehicles (caravans and motor homes) constitute the most important field of application of this invention.
In this patent application, by the expression extensible room and slide-out is meant any construction, having at least one wall or part of a wall which is movable in order to enlarge the interior part of the room of the housing unit.
This invention likewise relates to an awning with an awning canvas that may be unrolled, provided to be attached to a housing unit in such a manner above one of its extensible rooms that, when extending this room, the awning canvas will automatically unroll above this room.
Finally, this invention likewise relates to a method for attaching or installing an awning with an rollable awning canvas at the outside of a housing unit, so that, when extending the room, the awning canvas will automatically be unrolled above this room.
Caravans and motor homes provided with an extensible room in order to be able to increase the inside living space, are generally known. The extensible room, called slide-out, is a slidable whole mainly consisting of a front wall, two parallel side walls practically at right angles to this front wall and a bottom and an upper wall closing off the whole at top and bottom. Through an opening in a sidewall of the caravan or the motor home, this whole part can be slid out. In the slid-in position, the sidewalls, the bottom wall and the upper wall are mainly in the inner space of the caravan or the motor home and the front wall of the slide-out are closing off the said opening. In the extended position of the slide-out, its walls are mainly outside the inner space of the caravan or motor home and they enclose a space, which joins up with the inner space of the caravan or the motor home. In this way, the housing space may be considerably increased and an additional sitting area may be provided in the caravan or in the motor home, for instance.
The slide-out is brought into the slid-in position in order to be able to move the motor home or caravan. Sliding in and out occurs by means of a driving motor provided for that purpose and by means of known transmission and guiding means. Such a slide-out is described in he American patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,683.
It is likewise known to install an awning above such a slide-out with an awning canvas which may be unrolled from an awning roller to be attached to the outer wall of the caravan or of the motor home, and to connect this awning canvas to the slide-out in such a manner that it will be unrolled by the extending motion of the slide-out. When the slide-out is in the slid-in position, the awning canvas is completely rolled up. In the extended position of the slide-out, the awning canvas is completely unrolled above the slide-out. The awning roller being attached to the fixed outer wall of the caravan or of the motor home, whereas the free edge of the awning canvas is connected to the slide-out. Constructions are also known where the awning roller and the awning canvas are connected in an inverse manner and where the awning roller therefore is attached to the slide-out and where the free edge of the canvas above the slide-out is attached to the wall of the caravan or of the motor home.
However, these known awning arrangements have the disadvantage that the awning canvas in its unrolled position does not protect the front wall, and the windows, which may be provided, from the sun. In order to obtain such a protection it is known to provide a separate awning canvas that may be folded down or unrolled. This makes the awning arrangement more complicated and more expensive. Moreover, this additional awning canvas has to be unrolled or folded down manually, which makes the construction also less user-friendly.